The Immortality Key. The Secret History of the Religion with no name by Brian Muraresku

Just Mind-blowing. 

This isn’t esoteric, conspiracy, occult or anything like that. This book is based on historical, archaeological and scientific facts. It doesn’t tell the whole story, because there are holes, but it builds a compelling case supporting the author’s hypothesis that Christianity was build over the believes and practices of ancient cults. The author acknowledges that there is yet a lot to uncover, but that there are signs that new discoveries will support his hypothesis. 

The premise: thousands of years ago, perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, humans left nomad, hunter-gatherer life to come to live into bigger settlements, like cities. There is common agreement that this was triggered by the invention of agriculture. However Muraresku believes that before agriculture, that before humans were baking bread, they were brewing beer. There is some archaeological evidence showing this. Beer is a stronger motivation for humans to gather in bigger groups. Some archaeological evidence also shows that humans added a series of additives to their beer, including hallucinogens. The kinds of additives and hallucinogens varied depending on geographical location and time frame. However there is some evidence that these practices are extremely old. 

Anyways, fast forward a few millennia, and we find some well known civilisations following these practices, now becoming more elaborated and sophisticated rituals, think Egypt and Greece. (There are more mentioned in the book but for the sake of brevity…). There are written records of the motivations of these people to follow these practices and the effects on them. These are explained in several ways but all testimonies coincide in that those drugs help people to see beyond death, to stop being and experience God. Once you have experienced this you will not fear death and actually you will not die when you die. What is amazing is that these testimonies very much coincide with modern testimonies of users of psychedelics and hallucinogens, for example, Aldux Huxley relates something similar in his book The Doors of Perception. The same happens with patients who relate their medically-supervised, psychedelic experiences as the best in their lives. Modern medical literature indicates that psychedelics help with anxiety and to overcome fear of death. 

Muraresku devotes a lot of words to explain the Mysteries of Eleusis (Greece), a cult which lasted about 2 thousand years, in which women prepared a beer-based beverage, called Kukeon, seasoned with some sort of hallucinogenic (of which there is no physical evidence yet, but which can be inferred from old texts) and which was given only to initiates, once a year in a temple in Eleusis. A trip to Eleusis would change anyone’s life. It would open their mind to cosmic revelations. People like Plato, Sophocles and Cicero are said to have participated in the ritual. As Eleusis was a secret cult no one was allowed to talked about what happened inside but some of these philosophers left hints in their writings. Muraresku also discusses traces of Eleusis in Homer’s work. The Dionysian rituals are also analysed in detail. Dionysius followers drunk wine instead but as with Eleusis it was spiked with drugs. At some point it is believed that the Eleusian and Dionysian cults merged. 

The role of women in these rituals is important. They appear as the carriers, the priestesses, the pharmacologists in writings and in archaeological evidence in several civilisations. Everything is very much connected to fertility thus the connection with women. They are the ones who kept the secret knowledge and passed it generation after generation. For example think of Demeter and Persephone, two women connected to the Dionysian Myth. 

Fast forward a few centuries. We now have proto Christian groups/cults, in the first 3 centuries AD, writing about Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection with so much Greek mythology (e.g. The Bacchae by Euripides) embedded that it is evident that there is a continuity between those beliefs. Muraresku calls this the “Pagan Continuity Hypothesis with a Psychedelic Twist”. It states that Christianity is based in ancient pagan rituals. To prove this, Muraresku discusses some of the Gospels, including John, Thomas and Mary Magdalene. Muraresku says that the Gospel of John is very much influenced by The Bacchae. The Gospel of Thomas and Mary Magdalene are Gnostic Gospels and where rejected by the church because they didn’t agree with their official narrative. In the Gospel of Thomas we can find some references to the transformation of consciousness and which can allow you enter the kingdom of heaven. The way the text is written it reminds of the use of Psychedelics in the search of God. This would imply that Jesus was not God but an initiate (in the Mysteries) who could help others experience God. (Think about the Wedding at Cana and the Last Supper with a psychedelic lens.) Also the Gospel of John does not mention anything about an all-male priesthood. And this is confirmed in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene in which we are told that she was Jesus’s favourite apostle, and to whom Jesus revealed things he didn’t tell the other apostles. This has clear connotations for the role of women in Christianity. As it seems Christianity was a successor of the ancient psychedelic practices and, as in those practices, women were in charge. All this ended when Constantine converted to Christianism and when, a few decades later, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion and made the Eleuisian Myseries illegal. And with this, all the secret proto-Christian networks. (The reasons very well explained in the book.) As Christianity became institutionalised, women and drugs were erased, (actually women were hunted as witches) and replaced with male priests and with, as Muraresku says, a fake sacrament that would not make you experience God. 

There is much more in the book. Muraresku relates his trips to Spain, Greece, France and Italy to interview scholars, visit ruins, study artifacts and read ancient manuscripts. (Muraresku reads ancient Greek, Latin and Sanskrit…). And there is more but it would be better if you Read the book!

The book is very well researched. It includes pages and pages of endnotes, and long bibliographies per chapter. Some of the sources look interesting. I might read some of them at some point. Starting maybe with Elaine Pagels.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang

I wish I knew how to properly dissect stories like this, to see what is inside. Take them apart and analyse each piece, properly. But I can't, and this is what you get. 

Anyways, this story is superb. Fantastic prose, wonderful characters, an interesting structure (intertwining two plots related by concept), exploration of themes like science, technology and language. 

One of the plots in the story explores the role of writing in preserving memories and compares this with memories preserved by oral traditions. There is a moment of disagreement when a native man's statement about the past differs from a written record (written by europeans). The story helps us to understand that (western style) written records and native oral memories correspond to different views of life. The first view values accuracy while the other looks for validation of "the community’s understanding of itself". 

The other plot looks into an implanted memory aid technology, which can record and play any single moment of a person's life (that has been recorded). The memory aid is sold as an improvement over the recording of written memories as it records the real events with out any bias or filter. 

Would you like to have all your life in a record? The 2004 film Final Cut, with Robin Williams, touches on the same theme. 

The first plot reminded me of something I read this week: The Social Leap by W. von Hippel. About the concept of self-deception. Apparently, we evolved the capacity to deceive ourselves in order to deceive other people. And this deception is used as a "social weapon" to achieve our goals. Deception doesn't need to rely on objective reality. In fact, a great deal of value in the social world is created by consensus rather than scientific observation. 

This short story is included in Exhalation, an anthology by Ted Chiang. It was published online, for free by Subterranean press a while ago, but it isn’t there any more. I found a copy somewhere else. It's easy to find on Google if you are interested.

The Social Leap. The New Evolutionary Science of who we are, where we come from and what makes us happy by Willian von Hippel.

This book starts by explaining some facts about our evolution as humans. From the Australopithecines, to the Homo Erectus and then us Homo Sapiens, von Hippel explains how apes abandoned the savannah and the safety of trees, a circumstance that forced us to evolve in certain ways for example the Australopithecus was able to walk upright and throw stones. And the Homo Erectus and Homo Sapiens got an increase in brain size. As the “Social Brain Hypothesis” explains, large brains are needed to manage the social challenges of living in groups and dealing with other people. Large brains allowed us collective action, like hunting in groups, and thus become tops of the food chain. It also allowed us some forms of punishment, such as ostracism and collective punishment. Von Hippel states that collective action brought a cognitive revolution which he calls the Social Leap. Homo Sapiens have inherited some traits from the homo erectus like the ability to plan for the future. Homo Erectus also invented “division of labour” and were able to control fire. Homo Sapiens invented Storytelling and were able to manage complex social relationships. 

Once we get into the Homo Sapiens territory, von Hippel explains how Hunter-Gatherers lived. How they had a healthy diet and built groups in which they were “forced” to share. Their way of living was of “immediate return”, that is, they focused on eating today and when they lacked resources they moved away to other locations. Just a few thousand years ago Homo Sapiens invented agricultural which brought significant changes to the way they lived. To start, humans evolved a tolerance to alcohol to survive in their unhealthy living spaces (faecal poisoning). They were exposed to new illnesses, their diets got restricted and their teeth started to rot. With the invention of agriculture we got private property too, which brought “inequality” to human societies. So, people who were better at what they did were could own more than the ones who didn’t. With time, inheritance entered in the picture, and it wasn’t only the people who worked hard the ones who were rich, but maybe lazy children of rich men. One way to justify this is by saying that some “bloodlines” are better than others. Note that bloodlines wasn’t in the picture initially but appeared as a psychological justification of inequality. 

In terms of sexual selection, von Hippel explains how some male animals invest little to no effort in reproducing and parenting. Compared to them human beings devote a lot of time and effort to their offspring. However not in equal parts. Female humans invest much more resources than male humans, in terms of carrying babies, feeding them and looking after them during childhood. Because of this, von Hippel explains, that it is the females of the species who choose their sexual partners. Due of their great investment they want to make sure they get the best deal. Males, as a consequence, have evolved to compete between them to get females attention by showing them that they can be good providers. Signs of good quality men (that women look for) are muscles, brain, strength, sense of humour and symmetry. A sign of good quality women (that men are attracted for) is their fertility which can be shown in their youthfulness and hourglass shape.

There is also an interesting discussion about survival versus reproduction. “Evolution depends primarily on reproduction” so most of our mental and physical traits and abilities focus on us being able to reproduce. Our survival mechanisms are active as they will allow to reproduce at some point. But it is not evolution’s aim to makes us live longer or forever.

More on the Social Brain hypothesis. Our brain grew large to solve social problems, then many of our cognitive abilities might play an important social role. For example, divergent thinking, related to alternative approaches to problems, might facilitate flexibility in social situations. We like to share the content of our minds because it helps us to fit in and to predict others’ actions. We share our knowledge but most importantly our emotions. We exaggerate, or distort our stories, to make sure other people share our emotions. Also, social demands have led to the evolution of self-control. Some people are better at that than others, especially they are able to translate their problems into abstractions which help to swamp temptations. And finally my favourite concept: self-deception. We deceive ourselves in order to deceive others. We think we are prettier or better than we are, and we try to convince others to share our views. In this respect self-deception is a social weapon to help us achieve our goals. We show overconfidence and (fake) happiness. There are a few research studies quoted in this part of the book, which I found extremely interesting and fun. For example, a study on HR consultants who were asked to recommend applicants for managerial positions. Consultants tended to recommend overconfident candidates rather than knowledgeable ones, as they couldn’t differentiate one from the other. 

Another interesting topic is Innovation. Von Hippel says “technical innovation is the defining feature of our species, but most people never invent anything”. True, isn’t it. There are two kinds of innovation: technical and social, both allowed by imagination and simulation (scenario building) in our brains. Social innovation is about solving problems socially rather than by inventing new products. For example, banding together to deal with aggressive individuals. For von Hippel the most important social innovations have been, division of labour, money and waiting in line. There is an interesting study on sex differences on social innovation cited here. The study evaluates SAT scores across several years. Students with high-math and high-verbal skills are separated from students with high-math and moderate-verbal skills. It turned out that the high-math/high-verbal group was 2/3 female and that the high-math and moderate-verbal was 2/3 male. The study also found that students who were only good at maths were more likely to choose a career in the sciences, and that students with an interest in people (and possibly good at maths too) were less likely to choose a career in science. These findings suggest that women’s underrepresentation in math and the physical sciences might not be a problem of barriers for women only but perhaps a matter of personal preferences based on their maths and verbal abilities. This study would also explain why women, who tend to be interested in people, would not much contribute with technical solutions to problems. Most patents are held by men.

The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton.

First book in the Night's Dawn trilogy. It took me abt 20 days to read this 1220 page book. It felt like reading 3 or 4 books! The story is good but I wasn't excited. I will try and read the other 2 books (which are longer than this one!) But not now. Ideas I am interested in are the way certain transhumanist societies are organised, organic/biologic, sentient spaceships and the concept of affinity which allows humans to communicate between them and with their ships. Actually the theme I enjoyed the most was that one of genetically modified humans because it connects nicely with a book I read a few weeks ago: CRISPR People about Germline Genome Editing (embryo editing). It made me wonder about the social implications of such technologies, at least in fiction. 

I also liked the mystery around space ruins left by an ancient civilisation. I got a bit bored by the events in a pre-industrial, recently colonised planet and I didn't like the idea of humans coming back from the afterlife to possess other people... not science fiction but fantasy I think.

The Tower by Schuiten and Peeters

Beautiful, wonderful. A fascinating story about a mysterious tower. The story reminded me of The Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang if only for all the climbing the protagonist has to do.

The authors explain The Tower was inspired by Giovanni Battista Piranesi's work, and others such as Bruegel, Paracelsus and Kafka. Actually the protagonist name is Giovani Battista and its design was based in Orson Well's image. The authors relate how they met with Wells to show him their work.

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury (short story) and Time by Theodore Sider (essay)

I'm already in Part V Space and Time of this collection of Essays and Short stories: Science Fiction and Philosophy.

If you want to know what I think about the other chapters in this book click #sciencefictionandphilosophy

Bradbury's story is set in the near future where a company sells Safaris into the past for people to kill dinosaurs! Safaris are carefully organised to not create time paradoxes.

Sider's essay discusses two views on Time. Time Flows and Time is like Space. The essay ends with a reference to the Back to the Future movie which "fails miserably" as a work of Philosophy as it is full of paradoxical holes. Sider considers Terminator 1 a much better movie because it never contradicts itself.

CRISPR People. The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans by Henry Greely

Maybe this has been the most interesting, enlightening, eye opening and fulfilling book I have read this year. In the sense that a learned a lot about a previously obscure topic to me. It discusses Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats CRISPR technology to edit genes in plants, animals and humans, either ex vitro, on tissues, or in vitro on living organisms.

The book explains the CRISPR technology in simple terms. That is, how it is able to modify genes by cutting out, or replacing bad genes with good genes. A good way to visualise CRISPR would be via the text editor analogy, where it can find a misspelled word, cut bits of it and/or replace the wrong bits with the correct ones.

About 4 years ago CRISPR became a viral topic when a Chinese scientist, Dr He Jiankui, claimed to have produced 3 CRISPRed babies. Two twin girls and then a third baby months after. Dr He aim was to change a gene, the way it appears in some Nordic people, which makes them immune to some forms of HIV. Greely explains everything that is known about He’s motivations, planning, carrying out of the experiment and the way he was planning to reveal it to the world. The book also covers how the scientific community reacted and what tangible actions they have taken since.

When I first learned about the experiment I read quite a few comments supporting Dr He. Saying he was a hero who deserved the Nobel prize for eradicating one of the most feared illnesses of our time. People didn’t understand why Dr He was sent to prison for his actions. This book clearly explains why. Not only that. It explains all the ethical issues arising from the technology and the (written and unwritten) rules that Dr He broke and the possible consequences for the CRIPSP babies. After reading the book it is easy to see why Greely concludes that He’s experiment was “grossly reckless, irresponsible, immoral, and illegal”.

But what did Dr He do wrong? To start he didn’t do any pre-clinical work. Actually no-one had done that kind of work before. He didn’t experiment with ex vitro animal or human embryos, to asses the safety and efficiency of the procedure. Very little is known in the area and a lot of work needs to be done before even thinking about editing human embryos. Maybe decades of work. So He embarked on the job with almost zero preparation. Also Dr He did not provide a good enough reason for deciding to work on that particular mutation. The book goes in-depth with this issue but the point is that the risks of changing that gene very much outweigh the benefits.

Greely explains how Dr He’s failed to produce sound informed consents to be signed by the parents of the potential edited children and how they were not aware of all the risks involved. Apparently Dr He didn’t even get (ethical) approval from any of the institutions he was working with, the university, fertility clinics or hospitals. And if the above wasn’t enough the book explains how Dr He failed to achieve what he wanted (the gene mutation HIV immunity). Dr He knew that the embryos had different mutations from the intended and even after knowing this, he decided to implant them in their mother’s uterus. As far as I understand one of the twins got the intended gene changed, not to a known variant (as in Nordic people) but to a different unknown one. The result might be that this twin might not only be not immune to HIV but also in risk of other unknown genetic conditions. The other twin got only one copy of her chromosome changed. The other remained as it was. So no immunity either and a condition called mosaicism, where the girl will have cells with different DNA. The effects of all these changes are unpredictable and possibly dangerous. Nothing is known about the third baby.

Anyways there is much more in the book, for example, an in-depth discussion on how to deal with CRISPR technologies in the future. Is it inherently bad or can it be used for good causes?    A very interesting book indeed.